COM 240 Visual Communication

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeAKX_0wZWY)

For the next tumblr post, use pages 222 to 229 in the textbook to guide your final tumblr post analysis. 

Pick a website for a company / place / media outlet that has been around for at least a decade or more (e.g  CNN.com, nike.com, Field Museum, etc; don’t pick facebook or a social media site).

Take a screenshot of that webpage and create a PHOTO POST  (mac: COMMAND+SHIFT+4   pc: see this link).

Evaluate that website for DESIGN + ACCESSIBILITY (interface design). Use the terms in the textbook to guide your analysis. You do not need to address all of the terms, but select at least 4 things to discuss. For example, use of the grid, type hierarchy, navigation, and distinct areas of web content (these are suggestions ... there are more).

Evaluate your photos from Friday’s photo shoot. Here’s the guide:

1. Critique your photos - specifically the composition of the image, the perspective, and the lighting - using the language of design principles (including gestalt). And be honest - identify what you (or your partner) did well and what can be improved.

2. What are some meanings, or themes, that a viewer might take away from these images if they saw them without any context? And if you were to use these images (one, or a few, or even all of them) for a story or promotion about ISU, what meanings or themes do you want to convey to the viewer?

difference in lens sizes 

Directions: 

Select an infographic from one of the following websites:

https://www.census.gov/library/infographics.html

https://www.good.is/infographics

http://mashable.com/category/infographics/

Insert the image into your post (and link to the original) and write about the infographic based on Wednesday’s lecture. Specifically:

What’s the data? and is there a source listed? is the infographic accurately conveying the data? 

what are the preattentive attributes that are aiding comprehension? Is there some visual that can be improved to better convey information, relationships, etc? 

how’s the design ... is it elegant? is the design in service to the data (or designed for the sake of showcasing pretty stuff)? is there chartjunk? 

complete your post with a one sentence statement about if you think this infographic effectively and ethically conveys information. 

** please TAG your posts #infographic240 **

Here’s a pretty fun, interactive, and well sourced (albeit ... it’s a marketing / design promo) infographic about ... infographics. 

After watching the documentary about Milton Glaser (see the Glaser Doc guide on Reggienet --> Resources), select one of his pieces for a visual analysis. 

Here are the directions, as copied from the Glaser Doc Guide: 

After viewing the documentary, create a Tumblr post that is a design analysis of a Milton Glaser piece of work.

 This is essentially an exam study activity. ** this tumblr post is worth double the usual tumblr post points **

 Go to Glaser’s website: http://www.miltonglaser.com/. Click on the STORE or THE WORK page and select one of his poster, books / magazine covers, advertising, or digital work. Insert that picture in your tumblr post and a link to the page.

Between today and Wednesday’s class (FEB 17), create a tumblr post related to TYPE. Your task is to locate an example in the real world (as opposed to virtual / online world). Take a picture of an example of either good or bad typography. Look to signs (literal signs ... like street signs or store signs), displays, billboards, magazines, ads, tv, posters, etc etc etc.

In your post, address: 

the category of typeface

if the type (the font) helps or hinders the overall effectiveness of the message ... and why 

why you think it’s a good example of typography or a bad example (use the Wed. reading to help decipher good and bad ways to design with type).

Re-read Chapter 5, with attention to the Principles of Design + Gestalt Tumblr by class

go to this database of American Advertising history:    http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess/  

pick any ad that appeals to you and post that ad and write up an analysis that identifies:

how the ad utilizes at least one DESIGN PRINCIPLE (pp 51-58; e.g. “This ad demonstrates contrast because …”)

or 

how the ad utilizes at least one of the GESTALT Laws (pp 58 - 61)

optional: feel free to comment on the construction of meaning as well

Where we left class today: the ethics of process and the ethics of meaning in selecting a photo to use for the news report. Who decides which image to use? What permissions are (ethically) required... or not necessary because of the idea of public information / publicly accessible image? What meanings can be implicitly derived (aka - what are the connotations) from using one photo rather than another photo?

http://www.theroot.com/blogs/the_grapevine/2014/08/_iftheygunnedmedown_shows_how_black_people_are_portrayed_in_mainstream_media.html

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/08/11/339592009/people-wonder-if-they-gunned-me-down-what-photo-would-media-use

http://iftheygunnedmedown.tumblr.com/

post an image, a video, or a link that has to do some aspect of visual ethics (ethical perspectives, ethics of process / meaning, power, manipulation, design, etc.) . Please do not duplicate an example from the readings … and please try not to do a google search for ‘visual communication ethics” or similar searches.

The challenge is to find your own unique example and apply your understanding of visual ethics.  Write about 3 - 5 sentences about your example and consider either (or both!) the ethics of process and the ethics of meaning.